Warner offers HD DVD exchange for Blu-ray version

[Chris Gerhard]

Most titles are $5 plus cover art and shipping to get the Warner Blu-ray version if you own the HD DVD. I decided to pick up a few good deals.

http://www.red2blu.com/

Chris

 

[BananaSlug]

Nice idea. But, shouldn't it be blue to blu, not red to blu?

 

[Key]

HD-DVD boxes are red.

 

[BananaSlug]

HD-DVD boxes are red.

Didn't know that.

I wonder why they are doing this? Cort order? Fear of lawsuits? I just can't believe that they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts (assume they have any). Business is business, there must be an angle. But it's nice just the same.

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Didn't know that.

I wonder why they are doing this? Cort order? Fear of lawsuits? I just can't believe that they are doing it out of the goodness of their hearts (assume they have any). Business is business, there must be an angle. But it's nice just the same.

As far as I know, it is just a promotion to help their Blu-ray customer base grow and to reach out to the tiny market that stuck with HD DVD and resented Warner effectively ending the format with a single press release. There are still some holdouts that won't buy Blu-ray, this might be an incentive to get them to get involved. So, yes, no matter how you look at it, it is a promotion with a business motive.

I ordered a few titles with this promotion but nowhere near the limit of 25 although I own about 50 or so Warner HD DVD's. I am going to just continue to use HD DVD for many years in addition to Blu-ray. Most of the Warner HD DVD's use identical files to the Blu-ray version with a few exceptions that make the Blu-ray version preferrable.

Chris

 

[Old Quad Guy]

Sorry, but no. This is completely idiotic… No way am I going to pay $5.00 bucks and hassle with the mailing etc., when the HD-DVD’s didn’t cost that much more than $5.00 bucks to begin with and have the same exact picture. We would be only trading one piece of plastic for another - only to have doubles of the same movie and thus taking up even more valuable space in our homes. Looks like a desperation move in a slow economy to get people to buy their excess blu-ray stock.

If Warner really wanted to do us a favor, they would have announced before Christmas 2007 that they we’re dropping HD-DVD to go exclusively blu-ray.

 

[JonUrban]

If Warner really wanted to do us a favor, they would have announced before Christmas 2007 that they we’re dropping HD-DVD to go exclusively blu-ray.

This is very true. Many HD-DVD players were sold that Christmas, at fire sale prices.

However, if you were someone with both players, and a handful of HD-DVDs that you did not want to spend big bucks to replace (especially box sets like Harry Potter, etc), this program might allow you to go all-Blu, sell your HD-DVD player, and be done with it.

Not me!

 

[Bob Squires Jr]

Almost all of the HD-DVDs I own are Universal/MCA so it wouldn't do me any good!
I have about 40 of them and I have a Toshiba stand alone player and
an LG GGW H20L Multi-Drive that plays them so it's just not worth it.
I was hoping someone would put out a reasonably priced multi-format player
where you can play both. The HD-DVD is a blue laser also isn't it??

-B

 

[Chris Gerhard]

Almost all of the HD-DVDs I own are Universal/MCA so it wouldn't do me any good!
I have about 40 of them and I have a Toshiba stand alone player and
an LG GGW H20L Multi-Drive that plays them so it's just not worth it.
I was hoping someone would put out a reasonably priced multi-format player
where you can play both. The HD-DVD is a blue laser also isn't it??

-B

Both formats do use blue lasers and both formats use video decoding chips from Broadcom and NEC. There are several other video decoder chip makers for Blu-ray players in addition to those two but I am sure the chips would have worked for HD DVD as well if HD DVD had continued. I am afraid we will never ever see any more Blu-ray/HD DVD dual format players manufactured and no more dual format computer drives manufactured, there just isn't demand for HD DVD to justify it. I haven't paid any attention to the computer drives but remaining inventory of the Samsung and LG dual format players is not much and most of what is left are refurbished. Both manufacturers had difficulty getting their players to load and play all releases for both formats. There is a rumored big firmware update coming for the LG BH200 which might make it a much better player if that is true.

The differences in the two formats did create challenges to making dual format players and HD DVD didn't last long enough for the product to mature. I do own two different dual format player models and both work pretty well but separate players for each format are still a better option if you have the space and HDMI inputs.

Chris